📝8/10 → VERY GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “BANG-BANG-A-BOOM”

As was radiation for Big Finish in their Main Range, the last release of each release was meant to be a light-hearted or fun Christmas special or parody. Bang-Bang-a-Boom! parodies the Eurovision Song Contest and the Star Trek franchise.

What we get here is Seven and Mel arriving at a space station and encountering dead bodies, all the while the three-hundred-somethingth Intergalactic Song Contest is underway. The political tension between two participating neighbouring worlds causes stir-up and conflict behind the scenes of the production, so the Doctor gets involved in trying to solve the problem.

The writers know their Eurovision and write a fantastically sharp political satire that perfectly mirrors a lot of the political shenanigans involved with the real-world contest (especially so in recent times). Seven and Mel are also the perfect TARDIS crew to get involved with such a story, especially since the Doctor’s decision to impersonate a spaceship commander further complicates things. 

Sylvester McCoy goes all in on being light-hearted and fun here, and it’s a nice change of pace from the manipulative and sinister Seven we so often encounter. Bonnie Langford is wonderful, especially when paired together with the intergalactic pop star Nicky Newman (Anthony Spargo), who is delighted to meet someone who has no idea who he is.

The Star Trek elements come from the science-y and space-y stuff that both sound believable but also so out there that it's impossible to determine whether it's realistic or not. The cover art also mimics the poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

And there’s the murder mystery element here as well, which is nothing new to Doctor Who. That makes this something of a The Curse of Peladon or The Robots of Death parody as well, or even a twist on a classic Agatha Christie-style whodunit.

The supporting cast is colourful and fun. Angvia is a fun character, exaggerated and romantic, with an East-European accent; Geri is a rodent character with a cute voice (she sounds distractingly like Alpha Centauri; both are voiced by the inimitable Jane Goddard); Loozly is a hot-headed interpreter; and Dr. Harcourt is a medical officer working closely with the Doctor. David Tughan’s Logan the Commentator is also a very fun character and a parody of typical Eurovision commentators.

One gripe I have is that the individual episodes are all over 30 minutes in length, making this adventure a tad overextended.

The music is nice, especially some of the dramatic musical cues whenever a dead body is discovered. Which happens a lot, by the way.

The constant small twists and turns keep the story fresh, even though there isn’t a whole lot going on. There were so many twists that I couldn’t keep up with them all the time.

The strange romance subplot between Angvia and the Doctor is bizarrely funny.

The dialogue is frequently funny and over-the-top, with the cast delivering them in a way that makes them even more amusing. I found myself giggling more than once while listening to this.

Part 4 finally offers some “performances” from the Intergalactic Song Contest, and they are horrible and funny. It also features one of the funnier takes on a classic “murderer reveal” I’ve heard. The entire episode is the strongest part of the story and one of the best single episodes I've heard in the Main Range.

I love the little fake-out ending before we get the real reveal of the killer. And how the Doctor inadvertently wins the contest for Earth.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• I adore the continuity announcements by Nicholas Briggs at the start of every part. Feels like a nice callback to the TV days.
• They finally begin using era-appropriate theme tunes from this release onwards!
• The title of this adventure is a play on Lulu’s song Boom Bang-a-Bang, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1969 for the UK.
• It took me a bit too long to realise that Angvia is a deliberate anagram of a different word (it begins with a “V”).